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DONNA QUERNS THORNE
CONTACT DETAILS / KEY INFORMATION
Address : Hungerbuel Strasse 21, Bertschikon, Gossau, Zurich, 8614.
Telephone numbers : Home : 043536 8045 Mobile 079 948 7934
Email donna@donnaquerns.com
Date of birth : 29.6.62
Swiss Residency permit : B Pass
Nationality: British
Languages : Native English speaker, conversational German
Degrees: Chemistry BSC, Glasgow University, MSC Marketing Strathclyde University
Married /Husband: Senior Executive with ABB, Zurich. (David Thorne – Group Head of Applications & ERP)
KEY STRENGTHS
• 20 years plus experience in Market research and marketing, in both agency and blue chip companies.
• Held senior market research positions in SmithKline Beecham, Nestle and Lyons Tetley
• Held senior positions in Market Research agencies. Research Director, Consumer Division in Taylor
Nelson Sofres and Harris Research.
• Responsible for winning and delivering International market research projects for Global companies
(Colgate, S C Johnson Wax, SmithKline Beecham, L’Oreal )
• In-depth experience of brands and brand development and the use of market research across a wide
range of sectors from OTC medicines, personal care products to travel lodges and Legoland.
• Confident communicator and presenter to all levels, using analytical and creative skills in the presentation
preparation.
• Excellent selling skills and won several new clients beating’ other agencies for the project; excellent client
relationship builder.
• Excellent strategic and marketing insight and persuasive skills – used to re position and develop The
Russell School in Richmond and succeeded in being nominated Chair of the Governing Body for 3
consecutive years due to proven track record.
• Wide experience of research projects from simple product tests to complex market volume estimation
techniques.
• Analytical, strategic, intelligent, creative, dedicated, reliable, fun and team player, competitive
CAREER SUMMARY
• 2005 - 2011 The Russell School, London. Chair of the school Governing Body and Governor,
strategic repositioning of the school
• 1997 - 2003 TNS Sofres, Harris Research Agency (London) Director, Consumer Research.
• 1991 - 1997 SmithKline Beecham (London) Marketing Research Manager Consumer Brands
(Oral Care, OTC and Personal Care)
• 1989 - 1991 Nestle, Marketing Research Manager (London / Croydon) Juices and Drinks division
• 1988 - 1989 Lyons Tetley , (London) Marketing Research Executive Consumer Foods
• 1987 - 1988 Clydesdale Electrical Retailers , (Glasgow , Scotland) Marketing Executive

2. Curriculum Vitae – Donna Querns Thorne
Donna Querns Thorne donna@donnaquerns.com Mobile 0041 79 948 7934
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CAREER DETAILS
Nov 2005 - July 2011 THE RUSSELL SCHOOL, London. Governor and Chair Governing
Body (Marketing Strategic and Positioning in a school setting )
• Responsible for Chairing the school Governing Body . Re-voted Chair repeatedly by the Governing Body
for 3 years due to achievements, insights and general management skills.
• Attended key meetings with Head Teacher and lead inspector with the Director of Education for Richmond
(leading borough in England and Wales league tables) representing the Governing Body required to
answer all key aspects of the schools performance and improvement plans as well as current SATS
indicators.
• Restructured the GB into 3 main committees in line with key Local Authority report in order to maximise
the Governing body’s ability to carry out duties effectively.
• Set up key strategic planner for the GB using insight gained via Local authority training sessions. This
resulted in a very focussed Governing Body,Head Teacher and therefore school.
• Set up strong communication within the Governing Body, keeping members informed of key events.
• Performance managed the Head Teacher according to the Local Authority performance management
guidelines liasing with the School Improvement partner ( another experienced Headteacher).
• Analysed and presented the SATs result for The Russell School making comparisons at Richmond and
National level. Used to identify the schools weaknesses, strengths and to feed into the School
Improvement and Development Plan. Identified clearly where the school was weak and needed to
develop.
• Successfully placed the After Schools Provider ( Fit for Sport) following the Government guidelines on
selecting providers.
• Presented at various school public events ( e.g. Speaking at the Leavers Evening attended by parents,
students and staff.)
• Successfully briefed and implemented a completely new Russell School Website, working with the Head
Teacher and website design team .
• Designed and produced the School Prospectus , working closely with the Head teacher using iPages.
• Introduced, designed and produced a School Leavers Book for the year 6 children, working closely with
key parents and Head teacher.
• Restructured the Parent Staff Association role and changed its reporting line in order to achieve a more
cohesive parent and staff body .
• Head Teacher recruitment – mainly responsible for the planning and action of the recruitment process
from writing the press ad, co-ordination of the action pack, designing the questions and coordinating with
key members of the Governing Body.
• Successfully placed the Deputy Head teacher into the Acting Head teacher role, which allowed the school
time to go through the interview process and motivated the Deputy to do well in the role. (The acting head
teacher was finally given the role).
• School Ofsted inspected and interviewed and rated as ‘Good’ and SATS results of the school were
significantly better versus the previous years whilst Chair of the Governing Body.
March 1997 – June 2003 TAYLOR NELSON SOFRES, London. Director Consumer Ad Hoc
Division
• Ran multi country project for ATS on behalf of TNS Sofres. The project involved trade off techniques,
segmentation using factor and cluster analysis and also the application of the TNS segmentation model,
Conversion model.
• The final presentation was a full day workshop with all of ATS’s key agencies as well as their senior
Marketing management and their marketing consultants. The client required detailed summaries and
conclusions along with next steps for each sector.
• Responsible for generating sales in the Ad Hoc Consumer division of £1.5M from both new and existing
clients. Produced Client development plans which were monitored and followed up on company
marketing activities.
• Main clients - SmithKline Beecham, SC Johnson Wax, Legoland, Granada, L’Oreal.
• Managed several teams of research executives, which varied depending on the different project
requirements and also scheduling workloads, performance reviewing and objective setting.
• Developed senior research executives for research manager roles .
• Led client training days (Conjoint Modelling and Segmentation Techniques) to add value to current clients
and attract new clients. This involved various divisions across the company, such as the qualitative team
and advanced methods from the TNS Wilson Street office, Digitab.

3. Curriculum Vitae – Donna Querns Thorne
Donna Querns Thorne donna@donnaquerns.com Mobile 0041 79 948 7934
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• Re- launched a tracking survey in order to make it more marketable , profitable and appealing ( Pre and
Post natal survey) and took the opportunity to use other divisions (Superpanel) resources to gain PR for
the new survey within a tight budget.
• Won £230K complex Multi-national projects for a toilet and cleaning company (SC Johnson Wax ) using
resources within the TNS group (advanced methods division at Wilson Street), the biggest project for the
division in the last 2 years. Proposal was presented to senior marketing and research personnel at SC
Johnson Wax. The findings from the survey were then utilised across the SCJ Europe business and
incorporated into future marketing plans.
• Won an International research project for a funeral company ( over £100K), requiring several
presentations at board level and various European Research analysis.
Mar 1997- Nov 1998 HARRIS RESEARCH Agency, London. Director Consumer Division
• Joined Harris Research as an Associate Director and was promoted to Director level after 2 years.
Responsible for a budget of £1.2m mainly from Blue Chip companies UK and International.
• Won numerous usage and attitude surveys from new clients and also repeated them after 3 years.
• Conducted numerous packaging standout tests for major companies both UK and International.
• Worked with USA office which Harris used for volume estimation projects - sold project to pharmaceutical
company ( Whitehall Laboratories )working with the US executives.
• Experience of various survey methodologies: face to face, in home and in hall, telephone interviewing
including CATI , self completion questionnaires etc . Also worked closely with the qualitative division and
incorporating qualitative methods into proposals.
• Won new clients (SmithKline Beecham), Granada brands with Travelodge and Little Chef, Legoland, SCI .
These new clients were considered to be major clients for Harris with annual sales of over £200k for
Granada ,over £100k for SmithKline Beecham (previous employer).
• Co-ordinated a team of research executives from associate directors to research executives in the
consumer division whilst managing these projects .
Oct 1991 – Mar 1997 SMITHKLINE BEECHAM, London. ( now GlaxoSmithKline)
Market Research Analyst and Planning Manager ORALCARE (May’96 – Mar’97)
• Promoted to this position after SB merged with Sterling Health. Dedicated to the market research function
within the Oralcare Division reporting to the Marketing Director. Role responsible for both the UK and the
European Category Management team. Budget £900k, £600 ad hoc.
• Involved the management of a market research executive and a secretary (recruitment and appraisals and
delegation of workloads.)
• Team player working closely with the brand teams, research & development teams and advertising
agencies to define and refine current strategies requiring good knowledge of the brands.
• Worked closely with R&D teams to assess new formulations and brand positionings.
• Key player in the team involved in assessing the validity of continuous data (Nielsen versus AGB
Superpanel data) with a sales value of over £1 Million.
• Conducted a wide range of projects : product positioning, product testing ( blind & branded), concept
product tests, packaging, pricing, price modelling ( Nielsen), stand out tests, Advertising research ( adcept
stage through to finished film), ad tracking, Usage & Attitude Studies, sensory analysis, POM to P
switches, in store testing, volume estimation techniques ( Bases tests).
• Chosen to present on a 1993 MRS New Product Development Course.
• Submitted a proposal as an example in “SB Best Practices”.
• Selected as a member of the ‘Blue Sky’ Oralcare Packaging team.
• Asked to present to Global Oralcare Category Management in order to persuade them to accept the
Aquafresh ‘wave’ design.
• Presented to Boots Head Buyer on Medicated Skincare U&A resulting in new listings for SB products and
further requests for presentation
Market Research Manager SB ORALCARE and HEALTHCARE (Oct 1991 – May 1996)
• Responsible for the purchasing and application of market research for the Oralcare , Healthcare and other
Toiletries divisions with a team of a research executive and secretary.
• Successfully adopted new techniques for measuring Advertising effectiveness ( Millward Browns test )
which was then used as a bench mark across the UK consumer divisions.
• Worked closely with the brand teams to ensure actionable and valuable research.

4. Curriculum Vitae – Donna Querns Thorne
Donna Querns Thorne donna@donnaquerns.com Mobile 0041 79 948 7934
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• Successfully took over a Gastro Intestinal U&A study and worked with the brand team and the agency at
making it useful and meaningful to the marketing team by working with the research agency.
• Selected as the Oralcare Market Research and Planning Manager via the Marketing Director beating both
internal and external applicants for the position.
Aug 1989 – Oct 1991 NESTLE, London. Market Research Executive
• Responsible for providing a service covering the analysis and interpretation of ad hoc and continuous
research for Juices and Drinks (Nescafe brand, Gold Blend, Libby’s C, Carnation Chocolite, Rowntrees
Chocochino and Desserts ( Chambourcy and also chilled products, Herta Frankfurters and Buitoni.)
• Responsible for planning and running the quantitative ad hoc research for key brands where the research
was conducted in house using ICI’s fieldforce and Nestles DP department.
• Required to write proposals, design questionnaires, write tab specs, analyse data and present the results
back to the senior marketing teams.
• Responsible for proposal writing for qualitative research, briefing external agencies formally and ensuring
actionable results.
• Successfully persuaded Rowntrees to conduct their tracking study through Nestle and not Millward Brown.
• Analysed and interpreted a concept product test for a new RTD Aero Chocolate Drink with
recommendation to launch – the drink achieved market leadership within 18 months.
• Implemented and designed a youths tracking study for Coffee Advertising.
• Requested by marketing manager and general manager to join Marketing department as a result of
personal performance.
Mar 1988 – Aug 1989 LYONS TETLEY, London. Marketing Research Executive
• Responsible for providing a service covering purchasing and analysing ad hoc and continuous research
for key brands (Cluster cereal snack bar, Ready Brek cereal, Lyons Cheesecakes and Fruit Fools
Desserts).
• Involved close analysis of continuous data ( Nielsen, AGB Superpanel ) and forecasting. Successfully
provided selling stories for marketing and National Account Managers to gain listings in major multiples
and other outlets.
Oct 1986 – Feb 1988 CLYDESDALE (Electrical Retail) Glasgow. Marketing Executive
• Responsible for co-ordinating and managing marketing projects for the advertising and marketing teams as
well as market analysis.
• Presenting weekly sales figures and market analysis and activity to the board of directors as well as a
monthly sales bulletin for all stores to communicate store performance and motivate sales.
QUALIFICATIONS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• Strathclyde University, Glasgow MSc. Marketing (1985-86)
• University of Glasgow , BSc. Chemistry (1982 – 86)
• Bellahouston Academy, Glasgow (1976 – 82) 5 S.C.E. ‘H’ grades, 8 'O’ Grades
• Conversational German / French
• Full driving licence
HOBBIES
• Horse riding and competing, skiing, walking, hiking and most sports
• RYA Day skipper qualification – large yachts
• Rowing - Coxed a 4-man Gig (rowing boat) in the Thames Great River Race in London for last 3 years